India accuses Pakistan of Kashmir ambush

THE Indian government has accused Pakistani troops of killing five of its soldiers in disputed Kashmir, only days after the two arch rivals indicated they were ready to resume peace talks.

While the Pakistani army denied any involvement in such an attack, Indian officials said the five were killed late on Monday at an outpost some 200 kilometres south of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by a UN-monitored de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC), but is claimed in full by both countries.

"Pakistani troops simply attacked the Indian post, violating the ceasefire, and they killed five of our soldiers," a senior army official in Indian Kashmir said on condition of anonymity.

Another Indian army official in Kashmir said that only one soldier had escaped with his life in the ambush of an army patrol.

"This was a patrol party of six soldiers. We have had fatalities and one has survived the ambush," he said.

The Pakistan army however denied responsibility.

"No Pakistani troops either crossed into India nor carried out any unprovoked firing. The Indian allegations are totally baseless," a Pakistani military spokesman said in Islamabad.

Hopes of progress in the beleaguered peace process have risen in recent weeks but Omar Abdullah, the state's chief minister, said that the attack would undermine efforts at rapprochement.

"Was briefed early this morning about news that 5 of our soldiers had been killed on the LOC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin," Abdullah said on Twitter.

"These incidents don't help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pak & call in to question the Pak Govt's recent overtures."

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir.

A deadly flare-up along the LoC border in January brought low-level peace talks to a halt which had only just resumed after a three-year hiatus sparked by the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

However the election of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in May's Pakistani polls has fuelled expectations of a rapprochement.

Sujatha Singh, India's new foreign secretary, said last Thursday that India would be "picking up the threads" of peace talks with the new Pakistani government.

Singh however said that any dialogue with Islamabad "presupposes an environment free of violence and of terror".